With April coming to a close, we thought now would be the opportune time to look at how things are going. To help us out, we enlisted the help of Howard Megdal, who covers baseball for The New York Observer. Regular Mets Geek readers should also recognize Howard as the poet behind our wonderful Daily Recaps.

What should the Mets do about Carlos Delgado? How much more leeway does he get, and if it comes to the point where he can’t play full-time anymore, who replaces him? What are your thoughts on Moises Alou at first base?

I think we have seen some signs of life from Delgado’s bat lately—obviously the two home runs, but also another hit Wednesday, as well as a sharp line-out. The truth is that the Mets have no Plan B, essentially, and probably lack the prospects to get an Xavier Nady. Not that trading for Santana wasn’t worth it, but it gambled on not needing to make a replace-Delgado move in-season. But I’ve seen enough lately that I’d like to see where his numbers are on May 31.

And I don’t think moving an injury-prone 41-year-old to a new position, when you want him concentrating on being the bat they desperately need, is a great idea. I can see the appeal—maybe if he doesn’t move, he won’t get hurt!—but I think it is not the right move to make.

Biggest surprise for the Mets so far in your opinion? Biggest disapointment?

The biggest surprise so far has to be Ryan Church. I expected a good major league player—but his defense is even better than advertised, and he’s hitting lefties like Brett Myers hits the ones he loves. The biggest disappointment so far has got to be the lack of production out of the Mets’ middle of the order. People are panicking at 14-12, but think about this: the team has gotten very little out of Beltran, even less out of Delgado, and literally nothing out of Alou-the expected 4-5-6 hitters—and they are 14-12, with nobody hitting or pitching better than expected so far. Since I expect Alou to hit, Beltran to hit a ton, and Delgado to hit better than .190 with no power, that is encouraging moving forward, if 14-12 is a kind of baseline. Oh, did I mention Pedro also provided nothing toward that 14-12 except for a rough outing?

How safe are the jobs of Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya?

I’m hard-pressed to imagine Willie surviving if this team crashes and burns in-season (i.e., if 14-12 turns into 17-27, for instance), or if they fail to make the playoffs this year. Omar strikes me as having a buffer in Willie, but I’m not privy to internal discussions.

What do you think the odds are the Mets retain Oliver Perez?

Amazingly, I think the worse he pitches, the better their chances. But if his numbers mirror or better last year’s, I think his value is higher than the Mets will likely be willing to pay.

I will also go on record as saying that failing to retain him, even seeing yesterday’s game, would be a huge mistake. The fact that he has these awful starts isn’t reason to dump him—it is worth seeing if he can reduce their number. He did last year, and was very valuable. Let’s see at the end of the year if he has as many as last year. If so, he’s worth a long-term deal. If he reduced them, he’ll be an elite pitcher.

What’s Jose Valentin’s situation right now? Are the Mets actually planning to use him at some point? I didn’t even realize he was with the team in any capacity until yesterday!

My understanding is that Valentin is a long shot to return. But he’s been a long shot at every point in his Mets tenure, frankly. So I won’t count him out yet.

What’s the situation with the following DL players: Matt Wise, Pedro Martinez, Ramon Castro?

Wise is taking a slow road back, but Sosa’s struggles may speed him up. I’d plan on seeing Pedro sometime after June 1. And I don’t know what is up with Castro, who left a rehab game in pain last night—doesn’t sound like run-of-the-mill hamstring issues, but the Mets are pretty quiet on this front.

Who scares you more right now: the Braves, Phillies, or…the Marlins???

The Phillies. They are like the Braves, with a better lineup and better pitching. They look like an 80-85 win team to me. Atlanta, more like 75-80. And the Marlins may be the worst defensive team in American history. I recently looked up their Defensive Effeciency Rating—it wasn’t expressed as a number, but rather as a picture of the Maginot Line.

What’re your thoughts on Johan Santana so far?

That the Mets might have underpaid. Santana joins Beltran and Wright as three players who have no real flaws in their game. Reyes will rejoin that group soon, I believe. An amazing all-around talent.

Why do you think the Mets fans are booing Lastings Milledge? They even booed him at Washington’s park!

I was surprised that happened—he was a fan favorite last year. I can only assume either Mets fans rightly saw him as an enemy player, and responded accordingly or mistook him for Aaron Heilman.

Your thoughts on Mets fans’ rude treatment of Phillies fans visting Shea?

When I was nine years old, I attended one of many Phillies-Mets games at Veterans Stadium. I was decked out accordingly—Mets shirt, Mets shorts, Mets socks—pretty sure that was the year of Mets shoelaces, too. And as I went to get a hot dog, a Phillies fan in his 20s or 30s shoved me and yelled, “Mets suck!” I looked up at him and said, “I’m nine years old.” The guy didn’t apologize, just kind of shuffled away. How lovely to bring that energy into Shea Stadium.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that Shea is a more violent place when the Phillies come to town than it was during any Mets-Yankees battle. And it makes what, for me, was a rivalry I had long hoped to ripen into something that transforms Shea into an unpleasant place. I am hopeful that energy disappears—the Collapse has seemingly made it the standard MO, even when the Phils aren’t in town.

On Saturday, somebody heckled Cow-Bellman, the symbol of all that is right with Mets fans. He had this look like the Native American in the littering commercial. I’ve had the privilege of interviewing him, meeting his friends—I wanted to go give him a hug.

What is your favorite:
baseball blog?

Baseball Think Factory is my first visit every day—love Buster Olney’s rundown, Joe Posnanski’s writing, and Pete Abraham is the best beat reporter in the city, either Mets or Yankees.

TV show?

Tough one—Arrested Development probably, though I was a huge fan of Dr. Katz, and I think the best show ever was Mary Tyler Moore.

movie?

Have to be either The Third Man or the original To Be or Not to Be—best movie I’ve seen since the new millenium began is The Lives of Others.

pre-enlightenment philosopher?

That’s easy. Bill James.